John Willyard is the premier imaging voice of Country Radio. His list of credits is long, including being the first voice actor to be inducted into the Country Radio Hall Of Fame.
Willyard is a familiar face to those attending CRS. His welcoming demeanor generally leads to a crowd gathering around him in the hall.
When Willyard was starting his Voice Actor career, one of his real champions was the late Rusty Walker. Walker and his consulting team worked on and helped create a signature sound for Country Radio.
Not surprisingly one of Willyard’s best CRS memories was meeting Rusty and his team for the first time.
“I’ll never forget it. Outside of the Pickin Parlor, I was walking toward Rusty Walker and his top men were with him, Scott Husky, Bob Glasco, and J.J. Jobe, and there were a few other PDs. But that’s the first time I ever met Rusty, and I certainly needed to express my sincere gratitude to him for recommending me as heavily as he did from the get-go.”
“I was barely into imaging Country stations, the first one being KCLA in Los Angeles, and little did I know who the consultant was. And then I started getting these calls all the time. Every day, I’d get a call. They’d ask for a demo sent on cassette and FedEx, and I’d ask them, who had you call? Rusty. Every time, it was Rusty. Those are some fond memories.”
A couple of well-known people from the football world also had a lasting impact.
“I remember keynote people that really blew me away. Terry Bradshaw comes to mind. He was one of the finest keynote speakers we ever had. Coach Lou Holtz. If I’m not mistaken, they were both at Gaylord Opryland.”
“I looked forward to the Charlie Monk monologues on New Faces Night. Those were amazing. That was like a roast in itself. It roasted the whole industry. It was good-natured with just enough teeth, and only Charlie could do it. Only Charlie could pull it off.”
For someone whose job means spending a lot of time alone in his studio, Willyard looks forward to the comradery and reconnecting with friends at CRS.
“I’m in a cocoon in a way because I’m a single-person operation in this private studio of mine. So, the professional stimulation is something I look forward to.”
If CRS asked Willyard to create a panel for the seminar, what would it look like?
“I’ve been thinking about that lately, and I will quote Scott Roddy, who recently said on a Zoom meeting, and he was directing this to a number of imaging voices, he said, ‘you people are the most heard voice on any given station.’”
And as someone who sees a lot of scripts, what tips would he offer on writing and imaging?
“I know they’re wearing a lot of hats, but I see a lot of misspellings and grammar and stuff, and sometimes I have to stop and go, what was that word? And I know there have been people, I’ve heard these stories, and so have you, about voice people who will start on a rant while they’re recording and swear at the PD or whoever wrote it. I’ve never done that. I would never do it on recording. Because, you know, the famous Casey Kasem, or worse yet, Ernie Anderson, that stuff will live. It’ll live forever.”
The opportunity to see and take in music at CRS is nearly unlimited, which provided some good memories for Willyard as well. One involved Garth Brooks and people dropping a business card in a bin for a special prize.
“If your card was pulled, you got to come up and sing your favorite song with Garth. It was so funny because they announced the winner and he ran up there and was immediately on the phone. And you can hear the conversation because they’ve got the mics up, and he’s standing right next to Garth. And he says I don’t care what’s on. He says, ‘Dump it. If you’re in a commercial break, just dump it. Go to me. I’m standing here with Garth ’”
“And the guy is arguing with him, ‘I can’t do that right now.’ We have to wait a minute. So, eventually, they did ‘Friends in Low Places’ together.”
Another year, a show presented a series of artists and their CMA number-one singles.
“It was one of the tightest productions I’ve ever seen. It was the CMA’s number one singles of the year through the decades. The first one out was Jack Green. He came out in this nudie suit and sang ‘There Goes My Everything.’ It was the first number one single awarded on the CMA Awards.”
“Tanya Tucker came out, Oak Ridge Boys. It was just stupendous.”
Willyard’s long-time dedication to being at CRS has led others to see the advantage of being at the seminar.
“It’s hard to distill. Because in the early days, for several years, at least 10 or 15 years, there would be only one other imaging voice there. Sometimes it was just me. But in the last eight-nine years, there have been over 20.”
If you’re attending CRS, seek out John. I promise you will enjoy the conversation.
Reach out by email here.
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Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
